Vita
by Cielo1207
Summary: Reborn is a mortal too...It takes many years before Tsuna finally comprehends.


**Disclaimer: I don't own khr or any of its characters**

**Tsuna is in his mid-thirties**

* * *

The report is dumped unceremoniously on his desk and when Tsuna lifts his head up from his paperwork, he senses an almost, but not quite, anger. It is brewing, gathering and for the life of him, Tsuna can't understand why Reborn is feeling so. As usual, the fedora covers his eyes and Tsuna's not sure if he feels relieved or worried. He waits patiently for something, anything to be said. But Reborn makes an awkward motion with his hand, as if wanting to reach out to Tsuna but aborts it halfway and instead pulls his fedora lower. Worry begins to shred his relief to pieces; Reborn has never been anything less than graceful, sleek…_powerful._

Tsuna wonders if he should speak; the words, however, are caught up in his throat. There is the not quite anger in the air, saturated with the sudden awkwardness of Reborn that alerts Tsuna that something is very…_fragile_. Not exactly wrong_, fragile_. And just as Tsuna decides that the silence is too disturbing and opens his mouth to ask something, _anything;_ a sigh escapes from Reborn…weary, exhausted…_brittle_. He sighs again and stretches, spine making a very alarming 'pop' sound. He gives Tsuna a not quite look and shakes his head.

"I'm getting too old." And he walks out of the office, leaving behind a very unsettling atmosphere.

Tsuna can feel a numbing cold seeping into his heart. Reborn…_old?_ It feels preposterous, sacrilegious even to think of Reborn and old in the same sentence but the way Reborn says it….as if he means it. And his heart is taken over by the cold, spreading towards his hands until they are paralyzed, then his legs…until he cannot move, refuses to move because it is impossible that Reborn is growing old…

_But he is._

And then, Tsuna realizes that Reborn…_**is mortal**_.

_**Nonononono**_

It hurts, Tsuna realizes, because the greatest man Tsuna will possibly ever know is one day going to die.

_Reborn dead._

_Death_

_Coffin_

_**Not alive**_**.**

He shudders and his whole body spasms and he exhales air he didn't know he was holding. It is impossible for anyone to be immortal, Tsuna knows that but…he doesn't expect himself to build a sort of shrine in his head for Reborn. He was always so…overwhelming, someone whom he could never shake off, Reborn made the impossible possible, crushed Tsuna's insecurities, broke him into shards and built him into the unrelenting sky…just like a god.

But now…Reborn could as easily be shot in the head as he, stabbed in the heart, burnt to ashes, tortured, car crash, plane crash…_anything_. And Tsuna can't stand his thoughts anymore so he forces his body put of his chair and past his door, past windows and more doors until he finds himself in front of Reborn's bedroom door.

Rationally, Tsuna knows that it is unlikely that Reborn will suddenly drop dead but…Tsuna is not being rational and Reborn wasn't acting rationally when he told Tsuna he was old.

So before his sanity returns, Tsuna opens the door without a single knock. Reborn's jacket is draped over a chair and his eyebrow rises in an oh so familiar way.

"Wh—"

But Tsuna is already hugging him, arms in a death grip around him. He can hear Reborn's heart beating, just like his but still so different, so much steadier Tsuna thinks. Warmth radiates through his shirt, and Tsuna inhales deeply, a uniquely Reborn scent…gunpowder and chocolate. Tsuna can feel Reborn's chest rising and falling…rise and fall, rise and fall.

And suddenly it feels too much, because Tsuna has aged and so has Reborn. Black hair peppered with gray, wrinkles, laugh lines and Tsuna just wants to be young again, Tsuna wants Reborn to be young again, Tsuna just wants time to stop. He doesn't realize he is crying until he feels a slim hand petting his head and even though he's too old to be crying like a child, he can't find it in himself to care.

"Calm down Dame-Tsuna." But all Tsuna does is cry harder because Reborn hasn't called him that in nearly ten years.

"Y-you're human…" Reborn makes an irritated noise and Tsuna cries even harder because Reborn is finally acting like Reborn again.

"Of course I'm human; I'm just superior to normal ones…" Reborn sighs and gently releases Tsuna's death grip and pushes him away.

"Dame-Tsuna…just because you finally realize that I am human does not mean that I will suddenly drop dead or die going on a mission. So…calm down."

"…I'm worried." Reborn scowls hearing that and bends so Tsuna has no choice but to look him in the eye.

"Tsuna…I may be old, my body may be old because time has stopped once for me and that was bad enough…your older too, much older than the Dame-Tsuna you used to be. Honestly, I can die happy because you've become a boss worthy of two Vongolas. I'm contented…but that does not mean that a puny assassin can kill me nor will I suddenly be run over by a car and die. I may be mortal, but I'm still the greatest hitman in the world. Remember that."

Reborn's eyes are as black as the day Tsuna met him, as black as the day he returned to being an adult and Tsuna feels like a child all over again and this time he lunges at Reborn for an entirely different reason. They nearly end up tangled on the floor but Reborn manages to stay upright, this time, he returns the hug.

"I love you."

He whispers it, as soft (or perhaps as loud) as the passing of time into infinity. Tsuna thinks he should have said it earlier, when he became Decimo officially, when he became the respected man he now is or when he stood proud as the unmovable sky with Reborn by his side. But he didn't, so he says it now, before Reborn's body lies cold, before he becomes a doddering fool.

There is no hesitation when Reborn replies, because he understands what Tsuna is trying to convey, beyond words, beyond time.

"Of course, Dame-Tsuna…Always."

It's not the sort of love which belongs to husbands and wives, nor is it the love which belongs to fathers and sons, Tsuna can't describe it, won't describe it. All he knows is that, like many other things, it is uniquely Reborn.

_~fin~_


End file.
